Episode 131, 'In Defence of God's Goodness' with Jack Symes (Part I - Defeating the Evil-God Challenge)

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane

Euthanasia, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Existentialism, Marxism, Kant, Ethics, Davidpapineau, Dennett, Marx, Evilgodchallenge, Cosmological, Mind, Consciousness, Courses, Nagasawa, Education, Johnstuartmill, Jeremybentham, Aristotle, Ocr, Camus, Josephfletcher, Conscience, Society & Culture, Kantianethics, Philosophy

4.8 • 604 Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Birds sing joyfully, dogs smile as they fetch their sticks, and philosophers laugh at their own jokes on podcasts. It is a happy world after all. In fact, if we ponder upon such delights for long enough, it is possible to infer – even during our darkest days – that these are gifts bestowed by a benevolent creator, for these are not necessary for our survival but are gratuitous goods.

Yet, says another, what if these delights are no more proof of a benevolent creator than they are a malevolent one? What if these goods are given just to amplify our suffering when they are inevitably taken from us? And, what if, for every reason given for believing in a good-god, there was room for an evil-god to just as easily take his place?

In this episode, we’ll be exploring the evil-god challenge with Dr Jack Symes, teacher and researcher at Durham University and editor Bloomsbury’s popular book series, Talking about Philosophy. According to Symes, whilst the evil-god challenge has its merits, we should be sceptical about its attempts to draw parallel arguments to those in favour of god’s goodness. Ultimately, for Symes, there are enough asymmetries in these parallel arguments that we should consider the evil-god challenge defeated.

Contents

Part I. Defeating the Evil-God Challenge

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Jack Symes (website)

Jack Symes, Defeating the Evil-God Challenge: In Defence of God’s Goodness (book)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm just saying like we treat it.
0:01.4	So it's not a bit. It's just we're treating you like you are a guest on a podcast and you don't know what the panseye cast is. If we were just like, who's this weirdo? That was never. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think you like it. You do said that. You're pitching that. All right. So we got this freak who cares about God.
0:23.7	Go on, tell us what you think.
0:26.4	What's your book? Tell us about it.
0:28.9	Tell us about it.
0:30.1	Bring me when you're done. Birds sing joyfully.
0:41.8	Dogs smile as they fetch their sticks and philosophers laugh at their own jokes on podcasts.
0:47.3	It is a happy world after all.
0:49.9	In fact, if we ponder upon such delights for long enough,
0:53.4	it is possible to infer even during
0:55.8	our darkest days that these are gifts bestowed by a benevolent creator, for these are not
1:01.1	necessary for our survival, but our gratuitous goods.
1:05.0	Yet, says another, what if these delights are no more proof of a benevolent creator than
1:10.0	they are of a malevolent one?
1:12.4	What if these goods are given just to amplify our suffering when they are inevitably taken from us?
1:19.3	And what if, for every reason given for believing in a good God, there was room for an evil God
1:25.4	to just as easily take his place.
1:33.6	In this episode, we'll be exploring the Evil God Challenge with Dr. Jack Symes,
1:38.5	teacher and researcher at Durham University, an editor of Bloomsbury's popular philosophy book series,
1:44.0	Talking About Philosophy. According to Symes, while the Evil God Challenge has its University, an editor of Bloomsbury's popular philosophy book series talking about philosophy.
1:45.7	According to Symes, while the evil God challenge has its merits, we should be skeptical
1:49.7	about its attempts to draw parallel arguments to those in favor of God's goodness.
	...

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